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Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony has opened up a new downloads store for the PlayStation Portable. Store.playstation.com interfaces with your existing PSN network id, and will allow purchase and download of games, trailers, and demos to your Sony handheld. The company is already clarifying that this 'won't kill the UMD format', and that this is just an alternative method to obtain content. Darren Carins, head of online marketing for SCEE, was quoted as saying "The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market. I don't think that this would give us any cause for concern over UMD, I think they sit very well together. When you talk about the more casual games, pick-up-and-play games, you would definitely want to put them through the Store rather than have disc production, in to retail, and so on."
signals to me that the format is in deep trouble. If they didn't feel this move could be interpreted as being a negative for UMD, they wouldn't have defended it.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
What t hey're doing is not a kill to UMD. It's to allow people to purchase, d/l and store PSP content on the PC instead of forcing consumers to invest in a PS3.
In all it is a good marketing move to foster more consumer trust and allow some consumer choice.
In the future more PSOne games will be available for the PSP download service. Some are very large (FF7-9) and would require considerable space for permanant storage.
UMD disks hold 1.8 gigs of data. The MEmory Stick the PSP uses holds 4 gigs max at $50-80 per card. It's simply not cost effective to replace UMD with these "yet". It you could d/l PSP games directly to the memory stick you could fit 2-3 games. Even at a discounted price, we're breaking even, or exceeding cost of the UMD.
THe benefit though, is you have fast game read times, fast write, and a smaller footprint than the UMD disks. A basic cary case could now hold 10-20 memory sticks each holding roughly 2 games giving you the capacity to store roughly 40 games in a small cary case, versus the 4 UMD disks current travel cases can carry. Added benefit is your save games can be stored directly on the memory stick with the game.
Ok after some thought, eliminating UMD altogether is a good idea "if" they lower memory stick prices considerably.
Faster load times, bigger storage capacity (4 gigs vs UMD 1.8) directly writable, not affected by scratches, smaller... it's just all good.
Either way you read it, demise of UMD, boost to memory stick, elimination for the need of a PS3... It's a good move on Sony's part. Pipe dream, but maybe they're becoming more consumer friendly.
The PSP has been begging for this since it was created. I only recently got one myself, but the fact that the PS3 has been able to get content like this while the PSP hasn't just boggled me. Where were my PS1 downloadable ports?
Well, it took them long enough to make the store available to people without a PS3, but I'm glad they're finally offering this content without the $400-600 access point. I was very, very excited when I heard about being able to play PS1 games on the PSP around a year ago, less excited when I found out you needed a PS3, and completely disappointed when I saw the title selection.
I would be thrilled if they would put a reasonably complete selection of old PS1 titles up on this store. I doubt it will ever happen, but I would gladly spend $5 to download an old PS1 game I enjoyed rather than have to balance my ability to play old games on my PSP without (any new) risk with the ability to play the new games and once again risking a a brick. A boy can dream, right?
OTOH I never bought any movie twice, and I tended to buy trashy UMD movies second hand anyway.
I've had a quick look at the site and more than anything it makes me want to switch to a font with no TM character - 24 of them on one page is at least 23 too many. Okay Sony, I get it, you've trademarked all this stuff. What do you want? A trophy? A cake?
I guess it's a similar problem with the PSP itself - before playing a game I have to sit through splash screens telling me who developed the game, who published it, what technology it used (again, all with little TMs, (C)s and (R)s) - all I want to do is play the thing. And that's why I leave the PSP at the back of the drawer and play DS instead. UMDs are slow to load, don't slow them down further with tedious animations and logos.
This is good news for the PSP homebrew scene, just edit the binaries of the games to create your own, and it should work fine on almost any firmware.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
How can you kill UMD when it's already dead?
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So, since you don't have to pay for packaging, a physical disc, or any manuals, inserts, or other crap, or any of the other stuff that goes with it (like royalties for artists, production costs for any of the above, silk printing), the games bought online are going to be a whole bunch cheaper, right? ...Right?
UMD is not in deep trouble. It's dead.